List of U.S. military vessels named after living Americans

The naming of United States Navy vessels after living people was common in early decades of American history, but by World War II, the Navy had firmly established a practice of naming ships for people only after they had died. In 1969, a Navy panel decreed that warships would no longer be named after living persons. That lasted until 1974, when President Richard Nixon announced the naming of an aircraft carrier after United States Representative Carl Vinson. Since then, ships such as the , , , , , and have been named for people still alive at the time.

The U.S. Navy generally announces the name of a ship some time before it is launched, and well before it is accepted for purchase and commissioned into active service.

List of ships

The following ships received their names while their namesakes were alive. The list includes several ships whose namesakes died before the ships were commissioned.

1770s

*George Washington had several vessels named after him before he died in 1799, including at least four in the 1770s and one in 1798. (See also ).
** USS ''Washington'' (1775) was a schooner named ''Endeavor'' acquired by Gen. Washington in October 1775, renamed ''Washington'', and re-rigged as a brigantine.
** was a row galley that operated in Narragansett Bay during the winter and spring of 1776.
** was one of 13 frigates authorized by the Continental Congress. She was launched in August 1776.
**, a lateen-rigged two-masted galley, was built in the autumn of 1776.
** was commissioned in 1798.
*John Hancock's name was given to two vessels before he died in October 1793. (See also .)
** was the former schooner ''Speedwell'', hired in October 1775.
** was a sailing frigate of the American Revolutionary War, commissioned in 1776.
* was a 6-gun schooner, fitted out in 1775; Benjamin Franklin died in 1790. (See also )
* was commissioned in 1776; Martha Washington died in 1802.
* was commissioned in 1778; Silas Deane died in 1789.

1790s

*John Adams had two ships named after him, he died on July 4, 1826.
** was a 28-gun frigate built in New York, and launched 8 June 1799.
** was a 24-gun frigate built in Charleston, South Carolina, and launched 5 June 1799.

1800s

* was commissioned in 1807.

1810s

* was launched in 1814; Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826.
*James Madison had three vessels named for him before he died on June 28, 1836.

1820s

* was a 14-gun schooner launched in 1812.

1830s

* was a ''Van Buren''-class schooner, designed by Edward Preble and built in 1832.
* was commissioned in 1839; Martin Van Buren died in July 1862. (See also )

1850s

*, commissioned by the US Revenue Cutter Service in 1857, transferred to the U.S. Navy in 1861, named for Harriet Lane, niece and First Lady of bachelor President James Buchanan. Lane died in 1903.

1900s

* was commissioned in 1900; John Philip Holland, pioneer of submarine design, died August 1914.

1980s

* was named in 1980; Carl Vinson, former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, died in 1981, before the ship was commissioned.
* was named in 1983; Retired Admiral Hyman Rickover, known as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy", died in 1986.

* was named in 1989; Retired Admiral Arleigh Burke, former 3-term Chief of Naval Operations, died in 1996. Burke spoke at the ship's commissioning on July 4, 1991.

1990s

* was named in 1993; John Stennis, former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, died in 1995, before the ship was commissioned.
* was named in 1995; former President Ronald Reagan died in June 2004, eleven months after the ship was commissioned in July 2003.
* was named in 1997; Bob Hope, veteran of USO shows spanning 50 years, died in 2003.
* was named in 1998 for former President and Navy submariner Jimmy Carter.

2000s

* was named in 2002 for former President and naval aviator George H. W. Bush. Bush died in November 2018, 9 years after his ship was commissioned.
* was named in April 2004; Paul Nitze, former Secretary of the Navy, died in October 2004, before the ship was commissioned.
* was named in October 2006; Gerald R. Ford, former President and carrier officer, died in December 2006, before the ship was commissioned.
* was named on 15 December 2001 in honor of the Mustin family who has devoted over a century of U.S. Naval service. Vice Admiral Henry C. Mustin died in April 2016, 13 years after the ship was commissioned, and LCDR Thomas M. Mustin remains living in Coronado, CA.
* was named on November 27, 2006, for retired Rear Admiral Wayne E. Meyer, acclaimed as the father of the Aegis combat system. Meyer died in September 2009 a few weeks before the ship was commissioned.
* was named on January 8, 2009, five days after John Warner, former Navy petty officer, former Marine Corps officer, former Secretary of the Navy, and former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, retired from the U.S. Senate.

2010s

* was named on February 10, 2012, for Gabby Giffords, former member of the House of Representatives from Arizona who survived an assassination attempt in 2011.
* was named on May 7, 2012, for Thomas Hudner, retired Naval officer and recipient of the Medal of Honor. Hudner died on November 13, 2017.
* was named on May 23, 2012, for Paul Robert Ignatius, former Secretary of the Navy.
* was named on April 11, 2016, for Carl M. Levin, a former United States Senator from Michigan and Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The contract for the ship, along with the name, was announced in a press release from General Dynamics, parent company of Bath Iron Works, on March 31, 2016. Levin died on July 29, 2021.
* will be named for Harvey C. Barnum, Jr., a retired Marine Corps officer and recipient of the Medal of Honor.

2020s

* will be named for John Lehman, a former Secretary of the Navy.

See also

* List of United States Navy ships
* List of current ships of the United States Navy
* List of U.S. Navy losses in World War II
* List of U.S. military vessels named after women
* List of U.S. military vessels named after presidents

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of U.S. Military Vessels Named After Living Americans
Lists of ships of the United States
U.S. military vessels